A teacher from Tennessee really wanted the eight-year-olds in his mouth class to be quiet.
Did he prod them to raise their hands? Haul out the old "zipper your upper lipper" from days gone by? Start sending kids to the office?
None of the above. First-year teacher Kevin Ray has been accused of taping the kids' mouths shut. If it's true, I've got to ask. What the heck was this guy thinking when he got into teaching?
A self-described devout Christian who enjoys reading the Bible, Ray apparently skipped the part about "do unto others." He allegedly slapped the tape on the mouths of three of his charges, including one eight-year-old who sat through an hour-long class with his mouth clamped shut. Another child was allegedly tied to a chair.
Teachers have a rough row to hoe these days, I'll grant you. There's the No Child Left Untested Act, there's the lack of training for teachers who are now heading up classrooms of mainstreamed special needs kids, there are more discipline problems and more helicopter parents. There are also some fantastic, dedicated and talented teachers out there.
Still, I have never been able to fathom the excuse of the teachers who say "my job is tough, so . . . " It's a tough job, but you signed up for it - with full knowledge of what makes it so difficult to be a teacher. And part of that is dealing with mouthy kids.
If you can't hack it as a teacher, my response is the same as those who can't hack it as a writer or a fry cook. Get another job. Because if you can't handle kids being kids, you can't be head of a classroom.
Image/Source: MSNBC
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